San Antonio Express News

Open Cloud Academy Expands in San Antonio, Texas

For years, Rackspace co-founder and Chairman Graham Weston heard complaints that San Antonio’s growing data storage company had to search far and wide for qualified talent. He and others thought, “These were jobs that should have been taken by San Antonians.”

Express-News Recognizes COPS as Impetus for Palo Alto College

At the first convention of Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS) in 1974, Fernando Rodriguez Jr. introduced a resolution to open a community college on the West Side or South Side. Berriozábal remembers the idea of such a college was a hard sell for local officials....

At 40, COPS Still Standing Up for Residents

"COPS was founded by taxpaying citizens angry at the intentional neglect of our communities. We realized the answer to the power of money was the organized power of people. Our agenda focused on quality-of-life issues such as: health, education, jobs, wages and benefits, and neighborhood improvements..."

COPS / Metro Leverages County Support for Living Wages in San Antonio

300 COPS / Metro Alliance leaders gathered at Sacred Heart Catholic Church to announce a campaign to boost the wage floor for city and county employees from $11.47 per hour to almost $15 / hour over the next three years. Elvira Adame shared how it angers her to see her daughter earning only $8.50 per hour at a public community college, leaving her “stressed and tired all the time from working so hard...."

COPS / Metro Leaders Protest City Gag Rule Against NonProfits

COPS / Metro Alliance leaders demonstrated the implications of a new City rule by gagging one of their own leaders on the steps of City Hall. Rosa Araujo-Iracheta of St. Philip of Jesus Catholic Church detailed what the new rules would entail, exclaiming “For some agencies, this blackout period has been in effect since March…That’s over five months of being shut out!”

Project Quest Partners with Rackspace for Cloud Academy

Project Quest, a local jobs training program established in 1992, has partnered with San Antonio-based Rackspace to recruit individuals interested in enrolling in Rackspace's Open Cloud Academy. There have already been 17 Project Quest students enrolled in the Cloud Academy, and Quest is seeking city funding to expand participation by its clients....